Tag: military industrial complex

Iran Rapidly Restoring Industrial Base & Military Strength, US Intel Says, Presenting Strategic Challenge for Trump

New U.S. intelligence assessments are raising serious questions about the outcome of the recent conflict with Iran, suggesting that despite weeks of intense military strikes and claims of its industrial base being ‘obliterated, Tehran has been able to rapidly rebuild key elements of its arsenal.

The findings, according to various reports, complicate the strategic picture for Donald Trump, who now faces mounting pressure over whether to escalate the conflict again or risk losing whatever gains were achieved.

According to multiple intelligence sources, Iran has been rebuilding its military capacity far faster than initially expected. Officials say the timeline for recovery has exceeded prior estimates.

“The Iranians have exceeded all timelines the [intelligence community] had for reconstitution,” one U.S. official said.

The rebuilding effort took place during a six-week ceasefire that followed a major American-Israeli bombing campaign earlier this year. That pause appears to have given Tehran critical time to regroup.

American and Israeli forces launched strikes beginning in late February, targeting missile infrastructure, military facilities, and defense production sites. The goal was to significantly degrade Iran’s ability to project power in the region.

While the strikes caused damage, intelligence assessments now indicate the impact may have been limited. Analysts say Iran’s core capabilities were reduced—but far from totally eliminated.

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Germany Becomes A Ukraine War Lab, and a Staging Ground For a Forever War On Russia

In February, under the white light of a Bavarian assembly hall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, walked past rows of unfinished drones. The joint venture hosting them, linking Germany’s Quantum Systems with Ukraine’s Frontline Robotics, is already producing aircraft for Ukraine, plans to scale toward 10,000 units a year, and has already sent its first batch east. This is what Berlin now calls support for Ukraine, not crates on a runway, not old equipment hauled out of Bundeswehr depots, but German soil giving Ukrainian war design an industrial home.

For years, German officials sold their Ukraine policy in the language of restraint, solidarity and defensive necessity, but today, that language is buckling under what Berlin is now doing in plain sight. Germany has signed onto Ukraine’s defence innovation platform, opened itself to battlefield-data sharing, backed joint ventures that turn Ukrainian combat know-how into German-produced drones and robots, and committed itself to work on long-range strike systems with a reach of up to 1,500 kilometres. The result is no longer the picture of a cautious donor helping from a distance. It is a state folding Ukraine’s war labs into its own industrial base and building the rear area of a long war against Russia on German territory.

Germany Becomes the Factory Floor

The Munich drone line strips away the euphemism. Ukraine is not simply receiving German kit from stockpiles. Ukrainian battlefield-proven designs, software and operational lessons are being fused with German capital, German factory capacity and German political cover inside ventures built to scale weapons production for a war Berlin still insists it is not fighting. The Auterion-Airlogix Joint Venture GmbH makes the point even more bluntly. Registered in Germany and launched in February, it combines Airlogix’s battle-tested Ukrainian UAV platforms with Auterion’s autonomy software and is meant to produce thousands of autonomous, combat-ready systems in Germany for the Ukrainian armed forces. Every time Ukrainian engineers find a way through Russian jamming or air defences, German industry is there to absorb the lesson and turn it into volume.

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Canada’s Military Punished Whistleblowers Who Flagged Illegal COVID Speech Monitoring

The Canadian Armed Forces reprimanded soldiers who warned that an order to spy on citizens during COVID-19 could violate intelligence-gathering rules. The soldiers were right. The military punished them anyway.

Internal records and emails obtained by CBC News show that on March 11, 2020, a team called Joint Operational Effects (JOE) was ordered to create anonymous social media accounts and scour the internet for information about Canadians.

Under the direction of Col. Chris Henderson, the team produced dozens of reports between March 19 and June 5, tracking what the federal Conservative, NDP, and Bloc Québécois parties were saying about the pandemic.

The Canadian military was monitoring opposition political parties using anonymous accounts created specifically for surveillance.

At least two JOE team members pushed back. They emailed their chain of command, warning that creating anonymous accounts without authorization, while working from home on personal computers, could breach intelligence directives.

One soldier wrote to Maj. John Zwicewicz on March 12, 2020: “Given the sensitivity around social media and military use I have concerns about this.”

They added: “My concern is that by creating these accounts without following proper procedure would come close to, or cross the line set out in the policy.” Another asked to go into the office because they felt it “represented a serious risk” to do the work at home.

Zwicewicz claimed a legal adviser had approved the activities and ordered the group to “cease barrack room lawyering” and get back to work. The team was formally reprimanded more than a week after raising concerns. A source told CBC News that within months, some members quit or were medically released.

The people who raised alarms about potentially illegal surveillance of Canadian citizens got punished. The people who ordered the surveillance kept their positions.

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Pakistan Sent 8,000 Troops, Jets And Air Defenses To Saudi Arabia

Pakistan has deployed 8,000 troops, a squadron of fighter jets and an air defense system to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defense pact, ramping up military cooperation with the kingdom, all while playing the lead role in mediating talks between the United States and Iran.

The deployment was first announced by Saudi Arabia last month, specifically on April 11 — three days after the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran came into effect.

At the time, the Saudi Ministry of Defense said that the deployment came “as part of the Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement signed between the two brotherly countries.”

It added in a statement that the presence of Pakistani forces in the kingdom came with the purpose of “enhancing joint military coordination and raising the level of operational readiness between the armed forces of the two countries,” but didn’t elaborate on the scale of the deployment.

Iran attacked Saudi Arabia with missiles and drones on a near-daily basis right after the start of the American-Israeli war. Most attacks targeted Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts American troops and aircraft, but the kingdom also accused the Islamic Republic of hitting infrastructure, including energy facilities.

The new details on the Pakistani military deployment in Saudi Arabia came in a report published by Reuters on May 18. The report cited three security officials and two government sources, all of whom described it as a substantial, combat-capable force intended to support the kingdom’s military if it comes under further attack.

The full terms of the defense agreement, signed last year, are confidential, but both sides have said it requires Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to come to each other’s defense in the event of an attack. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has previously implied that it places the kingdom under Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella.

According to the sources, Pakistan has deployed a full squadron of around 16 aircraft, mostly JF-17 fighter jets. Meanwhile, two of the security officials revealed that Pakistan had also sent two squadrons of drones.

All five sources said that the deployment includes around 8,000 troops, with a pledge to send more if needed, as well as a Chinese HQ-9 long-range air defense system.

The report came just a day after Saudi Arabia reported that three drones were intercepted and destroyed after entering the Kingdom’s airspace from Iraq, where several armed factions allied to Iran are active. The incident highlighted growing tensions amid the ceasefire.

The forces sent by Pakistan to Saudi Arabia are very capable. However, it is clear that the deployment is purely defensive in nature.

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Milton Friedman’s All-Volunteer Military

Milton Friedman was one of the most influential leaders of the libertarian and classical liberal movement in the second half of the 20th century. A staunch advocate for applying free-market principles to government policy, he served as Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago from 1946 until his retirement in 1980.

In 1976, Friedman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics—during the time your columnist was an undergraduate at the university. Many of his students became known as the “Chicago Boys,” who helped introduce free-market reforms across Chile and much of Latin America. Today, President Javier Milei of Argentina stands as one of their prominent intellectual heirs.

A prolific writer, Friedman often collaborated with his wife, Rose, whom he met as a graduate student in economics at Chicago in the 1930s. Together they produced two of his most influential books:

1. Capitalism and Freedom (1962); and
2. Free to Choose: A Personal Statement (1980), which was later adapted into a popular PBS television series.

Both works championed the idea that voluntary exchange and market mechanisms could deliver public services more effectively than government mandates—including areas such as education (charter schools) and national defense.

Proposing an All-Volunteer Army

Friedman’s most impactful public policy achievement was his long campaign for an all-volunteer military. He argued that instead of conscripting young men, the government should hire willing volunteers at market wages. While the Navy, Marines, and Air Force had always relied on volunteers, the threat of being drafted into the Army often drove young men to enlist in those other branches.

Friedman maintained there was no moral or practical justification for the draft. He viewed it as inequitable, arbitrary, and deeply intrusive—interfering with young men’s freedom to shape their own lives. Economically, he believed it was ultimately more expensive than a volunteer force that paid competitive wages.

In 1971, Congress held hearings on the transition to an all-volunteer force. Friedman testified in favor. Opposing him was General William Westmoreland, former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam (1964–1968), who had a distinguished record including combat heroism in World War II, graduation from the Army War College, and an MBA from Harvard. During a break, Westmoreland approached Friedman and asked, “How would you like to be defended by mercenaries?”

Friedman’s swift reply: “Better than being defended by slaves!”

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Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over 20 years: CBO

President Donald Trump’s proposed missile defense system dubbed the “Golden Dome” is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over two decades, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. 

The nonpartisan office described the analysis as one that provides “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific administration proposal,” according to the Associated Press. 

Trump had ordered the system in an executive order during his first week of his second presidency, In a series of posts on X, the Department of War described it as a “layered, integrated shield” that will defend the U.S. against ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, advanced cruise missiles and next-generation aerial attacks.

“From a NORAD and NORTHCOM perspective, the requirement is clear. To defend North America and win tomorrow’s fight, we must maintain our war-fighting advantages and operate beyond stove-piped systems operating at human speed. Golden Dome is forging the integrated, automated battle management network needed to see every threat, make decisions in milliseconds, and keep America safe,” said Maj. Gen. Mark Piper, deputy director of operations at NORAD.

The CBO report notes that its estimate lacks many details from the Department of War about what and how many systems would be deployed. This makes it impossible to estimate the long-term cost of the Golden Dome system, the report explains. 

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A $1.5 Trillion Military Budget Is a Gift to the Grifters

Last week “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth insulted Americans by claiming that a 50 percent increase in the US military budget – from an incomprehensible one trillion dollars to an impossible one and a half trillion – was a “fiscally responsible investment.”

“Thanks to President Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget, this War Department has moved from bureaucracy to business,” he said last Thursday.

In a way he was right, though. The huge increase is much more about “business” than what is needed to protect the United States from potential invasion.

But it isn’t the kind of “business” that most supporters of free markets would applaud. On the contrary, this is the business of transferring massive amounts of wealth from the struggling middle and working classes to the well-connected Beltway elite based on lies and scare tactics.

The US mainstream media is crucial in manufacturing the fairy tale that if we don’t mortgage our children’s and grandchildren’s future to finance this obscene military budget, we will be attacked or invaded by some evil foreign power.

It’s not difficult to do a little research and see why the mainstream – and even some “independent” – media outlets push these scare tactics: they are owned or funded by giant corporations with close ties to military contractors.

This unhealthy relationship is known as “corporatism” – the intermingling of pseudo-private companies with the government. It is the precursor to actual fascism, where the government takes a stake in such companies.

We’re getting there faster than most Americans understand.

The whole scam is not about protecting the citizens of the United States. It’s about protecting the US empire overseas, which actually harms the citizens of the United States.

Yes, they rob us to fund their empire and lie to us that it keeps us safe. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our constant military interventions on virtually every continent of the globe only build resentment among the rest of the world’s population. Anyone who thinks people overseas welcome US bombs has been watching too much Fox News or reading too much Washington Post.

And what do we get for the most expensive military on earth – larger than the combined militaries of the next dozen or so countries? Not much. Iran’s military budget is less than one percent of ours, yet Iran destroyed or disabled every US military base in the Middle East.

It turns out that Iran has destroyed dozens of multi-million dollar US spy drones – and several near-billion dollar spy radar stations – with their own drones costing mere thousands of dollars each.

The US surprise attack was supposed to make Iran cower and beg for mercy, but it did the opposite: it showed that despite the trillions extorted from Americans for the most expensive military on earth, the US military can no longer win the wars that US presidents illegally force them into fighting.

The US military continues to fight World War II – with massively expensive aircraft carriers that do not dare get close to combat – while warfighting has evolved into something entirely different.

The only good thing about the Iran war is that it demonstrates how much the special interests have lied to us about the need to continue our suicidal military spending increases.

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Wall Street Is Pairing Up With the Army to Build Data Centers

Two trends, seemingly separate, have been accelerating over the past few years. First, Wall Street has been plowing billions of dollars into financing data centers. Second, the U.S. military has been ramping up its use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Now, these two trends are directly merging. In late March 2026, the U.S. Army announced its selection of companies to build and operate two hyperscaled data centers on two different military installations. Both data centers — one at Fort Bliss, Texas, the other at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah — will be backed by some of the world’s top Wall Street firms.

An Army spokesperson told Truthout that the Army has entered into “an exclusive negotiation period” with the companies to negotiate “specific lease economics” on what will be “long term, 50-year” leases.

The spokesperson also said that “[i]nstead of receiving cash for the lease, the Army will be compensated through ‘in-kind consideration,’” meaning that “the Army accepts services or improvements of equal or greater value in lieu of cash rent — specifically, a key portion of the dedicated data computation capabilities to directly support our warfighting needs.”

The data centers will be “100 percent privately financed, built, and operated by the developers,” said the Army spokesperson, and confirmed that they “are indeed commercial data centers” that will be allowed to sell off excess computing capacity commercially.

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Two feds nicknamed the ‘Alien Girls’ attempting to interview UFO witnesses at military bases around country

They are the Women in Black.

A pair of Government Accountability Office workers nicknamed the “Alien Girls” are touring military bases in an attempt to interview purported UFO witnesses, The Post has learned.

The non-partisan legislative-branch agency launched its probe of UFO disclosures and claims it is reviewing the practices of previous executive-branch alien investigators.

The two unidentified female investigators quickly move from formalities in the interviews to directly asking if their subject has witnessed unexplained craft, sources with direct knowledge of the interviews said.

They also offer their interviewees a classified setting where they can share their out-of-this-world tales, sources said.

Some of those interviewed questioned whether the GAO alien girls had high enough clearance to hear the classified information that some UFO witnesses would be able to share from their personal experiences. 

The agency claimed that their investigation is focused on previous government investigations into UFOs — and that the results will be keep under lock and key.

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US greenlights bomb deal for Ukraine

The administration of US President Donald Trump has approved the potential sale of precision-guided bomb kits worth $373.6 million to Ukraine, following congressional pressure over stalled arms deliveries.

The move was announced by the State Department on Tuesday, greenlighting a possible Foreign Military Sale of 1,532 JDAM-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) tail kits and related support equipment to Kiev. The equipment could be used to convert heavy bombs into GPS-guided munitions that can hit targets dozens of kilometers away. Boeing, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is listed as the primary contractor.

The deal does not guarantee that the weapons will be delivered, while the figures represent the maximum quantity and value of the purchase, with details subject to further negotiations and congressional review.

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